Spending 1 gold was equivalent to buying ten Skyfall Stones. One gold was worth one gram of real-world gold.
And he still had a full 1,000 grams of gold on hand.
When he'd fled home earlier, he'd brought two kilograms of gold, which he'd already spent. The remaining 1,000 grams had come from the two gold bars Xu Qi gave him when trying to recruit him.
The reason he hadn't spent it all was that he'd wanted to hold on to it and see whether any new top-up events would appear.
But judging by how things looked now, the game was incomplete and wouldn't be updated.
The previous top-up reward events had all been fixed.
So he decided to spend all the remaining 1,000 grams, converting them into skill slots.
"Top up 1,000 gold."
"Ding! Congratulations, player, on successfully topping up 1,000 gold. You received Skyfall Stones. You now have 16,856 Skyfall Stones."
Once he'd earned some more experience and become nearly invincible in the real world, he could make another massive top-up and continue down the path to becoming an invincible pay-to-win player!
Anyone who played games regularly knew that pay-to-win players and ordinary players were playing two different games.
The latter was simply part of the former's game.
After that, Gao Linzhi lay down in the wooden cabin by the mountain stream in the real world and excitedly started spending points on his basic skills.
"Raise Disguise Art from level 0 to level 100."
"Raise Basic Medical Skills from level 0 to level 100."
"Raise Basic Stealth from level 0 to level 100."
"Raise Basic Spear Technique from level 40 to level 100."
"Raise Basic Archery from level 10 to level 100."
"Raise Basic Fists and Feet from level 10 to level 100."
That cost a full 53,000 experience points, leaving him with 24,500.
All the basic skills he'd learned were now at level 100.
To sum them up: "Disguise Art level 100, Heavenly Sight, Earthly Hearing, Person-Judging Art (incomplete), Basic Defense level 100, Basic Medical Skills level 100, Basic Lightness Skill level 100, Basic Perception level 100, Basic Parrying level 100, Basic Stealth level 100, Basic Movement Technique level 100, Basic Spear Technique level 100, Basic Dodge level 100, Basic Fists and Feet level 100, Basic Archery level 100."
At level 1, opening a new skill slot for 13 basic skills cost 1,700 Skyfall Stones.
Gao Linzhi had figured it out: it was an arithmetic sequence, with each new slot costing 200 more Skyfall Stones than the one before it.
That wasn't bad. If the cost had grown exponentially, he'd have been out of luck and could only have gained more skill slots by leveling up.
Other players, meanwhile, only had six basic skills at level 1.
Even if they wanted to lock their levels, there was a ceiling.
Once they'd maxed out all six basic skills, they'd only gain 60 points of Constitution.
After maxing out those six skills, locking their level would be pointless.
He'd now gained 110 points of Constitution. Adding his base 5 points brought him to 115, for a total of 1,150 HP.
Disguise Art didn't increase his Constitution.
Gao Linzhi's current stats were:
[Constitution: 5 (+110)] [Spirit: 7.] [HP: 50 (Constitution x10)] [MP: 70 (Spirit x10)] [Skills: 13 (Maximum: 13).]
He decided to test his abilities.
He now had 115 points of Constitution, the equivalent of 22 ordinary people combined, though the reality was more complicated than that.
Because it meant he'd far surpassed the limits of carbon-based life!
He pushed off the ground and gave a slight hop, soaring over a hundred meters into the air and landing against the cliff.
He reached out and grabbed the rock face, his five fingers sinking straight into it.
The solid limestone felt like soft tofu.
Then he let go of the cliff and plummeted freely.
"Bang!"
He hit the ground from a hundred meters up, his feet smashing the rocks beneath him. Like a steel ingot sinking into sand, his whole body buried itself in the stone.
With a slight exertion, he leaped back out of the rock.
His skin was so tough that even bullets couldn't pierce it.
At last, he had the confidence to throw his weight around a little in the real world!
Besides, he also had resurrection and Disguise Art.
But naturally, he wouldn't be satisfied with that.
He was still nowhere near his limits.
His Constitution was already more than enough, but Spirit was still a weak point. How should he spend his points?
He'd read countless novels, so he knew that Spirit was surely connected to resisting the supernatural and could be used to deal with all kinds of mental contamination.
He looked over his basic skills. Basic Medical Skills ought to have been related to Spirit, but it increased Constitution instead.
That was probably because this kind of medical skill covered only surgery, bandaging, and stopping bleeding, rather than magical healing.
He had a feeling that what he needed was a basic skill with magical properties.
The most obvious examples were Fireball Spell, Water Arrow Spell, and Wind Blade.
Those were the kinds of skills that would increase Spirit and, in turn, MP.
With that in mind, he started opening more skill slots.
He did the math silently. His current supply of Skyfall Stones was enough to open seven more skill slots, leaving him with 756.
That would be plenty. This was the benefit of locking his level at 1: the death penalty was small, and he spent fewer Skyfall Stones.
"Open seven more skill slots," he silently repeated to himself.
"Opening the 14th slot requires 1,700 Skyfall Stones, the 15th requires 1,900, and the 16th requires 2,100..."
"You spent 17,600 Skyfall Stones. You have 756 Skyfall Stones remaining. Your skill slot limit has been increased to 20."
Great. He entered the game and sought out the Fourth Elder again.
"Fourth Elder, are there any basic magic skills in our village? Do they teach them at the Martial Arts School?" he asked outright.
"Magic? Only the Great Elder knows any. You won't find it anywhere else. Magic isn't like those ordinary skills—it's incredibly precious," the Fourth Elder said with a shake of his head.
So they did exist; they were just very valuable.
"Elder, could you recommend me to the Great Elder as a student?" Gao Linzhi asked.
"To be taught those skills, you need to make a great contribution to the village. You have to understand, this is like the top core technology in your world. It can't be shared lightly," the Fourth Elder explained.
He clearly didn't want Canxue to feel any resentment.
"I understand. Then what kind of contribution would be enough?" Gao Linzhi asked.
"Well, the village's greatest and most fundamental threat is the supernatural. If you can find ways to deal with three different supernatural entities, you'll be able to learn one basic magic skill," the Fourth Elder said bluntly.
"Three supernatural entities?" Gao Linzhi mused.
"Forget it. Don't think about that. Let the Corporate Players deal with the supernatural. All you need to do is earn more experience and become strong enough to hold those Corporate Players in check," the Fourth Elder said, laying it out plainly. "If you can't beat the supernatural, can't you at least beat your own kind?"
Gao Linzhi smiled.
That was the art of balance.
As expected, the village wasn't stupid.
They wouldn't let the Corporate Players take over the village unchecked. They were dividing the players, too.
The only people who could deal with the Corporate Players were the Rogue Players.
Using outsiders to control outsiders—using players to deal with players.
From that perspective, East Wolf Village was very clever. By comparison, the villages where one Corporate Player faction held absolute power could be wiped out at any moment.
Still, Gao Linzhi had no intention of giving up on learning basic magic skills.
He had to increase his Spirit.
What should he do when faced with a problem?
As one expert had wisely said: when you think there's something wrong with the game and you can't beat it, first ask yourself whether you've topped up enough.
Before you continue